(STATS) – At quarterback, Eastern Washington coach Aaron Best says his team has replaced a special player with an up-and-coming special player.
It’s quite similar to what the Eagles’ opponent in Saturday’s FCS championship game, North Dakota State, experienced three years ago.
In 2015, then-freshman Easton Stick replaced senior quarterback Carson Wentz for eight straight starts and wins, helping the Bison reach the championship game before Wentz returned to finish off the title-winning season.
Eastern Washington had its own change at quarterback when senior Gage Gubrud was lost to a season-ending foot injury in late September. Eric Barriere, a redshirt sophomore, has stepped in and gone 8-1 as the starter, getting the Eagles back to Frisco, Texas, for the first time since their 2010 national championship season.
This time, there won’t be a switch behind center for the final game against NDSU and Stick, now a senior. Barriere may as well be the game’s X-factor, able to pass like his predecessor – Barriere set the FCS playoff record with seven touchdown passes against Maine in the semifinals – but also a dangerous runner who may be able to elude NDSU’s fierce pass rush. Gubrud boasts Barriere has physical skills unlike any other quarterback in the nation.
“Gage is a tremendous football player, too,” North Dakota State coach Chris Klieman said, “but Barriere, he can beat you with his arm, he can beat you with his legs. The thing that concerns us the most is when things break down, similar to when things happen on our offense and things break down, when you have a quarterback that can ad-lib and make plays on his own, there are no calls for that.”
The beaming smile that Barriere has carried around campus since his arrival in the fall of 2016 belied that he might have had to wait three full seasons before getting a true shot at the No. 1 job. Gubrud was a sophomore in 2016 when he set the FCS single-season record with 5,160 passing yards. He was supposed to lead the Eagles’ national title bid in 2018, but was lost in the Big Sky team’s game at Montana State on Sept. 29.
In stepped the Californian Barriere. The 6-foot, 195-pound dual-threat, who made one start in the 2017 season, was ready.
“So don’t get fooled by the smile,” EWU coach Aaron Best said. “He’s ornery. He’s ornery, and competitive juices flow in his body even behind that bright smile of his. But he’s grown like any guy that is thrust into the spotlight at quarterback, where you can’t hide. Every snap you get the ball, and every snap you’re forced to make decisions in meaningful games.”
Being surrounded by a 27-member senior class defused some of the pressure while Barriere was settling into the starting job. When Eastern Washington didn’t score a touchdown in a loss at Weber State in Barriere’s second start this season, it may have been hard for people outside Cheney to envision the Eagles would still be playing in January, but Best says the only opinions that mattered were within their locker room.
Eastern Washington hasn’t lost since the Weber State game and its offense has been even better during the seven-game winning streak they take into the title game than it was in the first half of the season. Barriere has averaged over 323 yards of total offense per game and accounted for 27 touchdowns during the win streak.
“Now that’s it finally here, it’s kind of crazy to really just think back and (realize) that we’re really playing for a national championship,” Barriere said. “Every team out there in the nation wants to play for it. For this team to be in this situation is unbelievable. I’m excited.”
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